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In the process of making the handbook we realised we wanted it to be collaborative. Not only do we license all our content through Creative Commons, the Handbook is an open and continuous process, so we happily welcome action reports and interviews from around the world.

Be part of the handbook!

We are looking for interviews with creative activists and action reports!

How to submit content:

Contact one of the editors to speak about your idea for the article. The general editorial email is: editor@mastazine.net

Include in the document you send: your name and contact details (email) as well as the name of the collective and contact person and email.

What to ask?

How to find the way to creative activism? What is the motivation for such acts? How does it feel like to be involved in creative activism? What are the challenges? Why? What have you learned in the process? These are just some questions we try to answer in the Handbook. Basically, any questions that you think of–as an interviewer for this project, and therefore interested/involved in creative activism—that are relevant for this research and could help reveal the full nature of creative activism would be suitable!

How to ask?

Background Info: Make sure you know as much as possible about the person you are interviewing to get the relevant information. As in every general interview, there is some basic information you need to gather as a background, so you can place your interview in context. Sometimes you find a lot as part of your research process and the interview is just about confirming data, though sometimes you have to ask directly the most simple details such as: The history of the collective (where, when, why and by who was funded), how many members they are, in which concrete context (socio-political) they work …

Getting into the field

If you/we chose a certain collective for the interviews part, it is because it has something that we think is relevant enough to be shared with the rest of the world through our handbook. So, try to focus your questions on their personal experience, opinion and testimony. Get to the point: What is creative activism for you? / What and who is behind your actions or projects? / Is the action the goal itself? / What moves a collective to become involved in this kind of activism? / What methods or techniques do you use more or even would define your collective? / Why creative activism and not art or employ traditional metods of activism? / Is it for you a job, a source of entertainment, a way of life? / … Questions about expectations-motivations-maybe disappointments and obstacles? Come to an interesting conclusion because a bit of reflection is always needed.

In case you have further doubts on what exactly to look for in your interviews we have a list that is not mandatory but can provide additional orientation:

Interview checklist:

Is it easy to understand?

Is there a clear description of character/collective?

Is there an reasoned choice of interviewee?

Does the interview contian more information than you can find on Google?

Are the goals of the activity apparent?

Does the interview explain what made the person into an activist?

Is there reasoning described step by step?

Is the interview personal?

Is the context described?

IT SHOULD BE CREATIVE ACTIVISM!

We like to publish about non-commercial iniatives which support open source ideas and who take sustainability into account in what they do.

ACTIONS

What to find out:

What made this action necessary? (What is the situation, background information, context, etc)

Who are the doers? (Give possible info on collective/activist/participants/initiators)

How did it go? (If possible, describe the action step by step - the description doesn't have to be divided into steps but it's nice to make a clear structure)

Has anybody seen this? (What kind of audience did it receive? Was there a media reaction? Numbers, scale of impact as well as specific quotes, comments, and reactions are welcome)

Behind the scenes info: if possible, it would be nice to share a taste of the action either as a participant, member of the audience, or organiser. We would appreciate if you would share your impressions, experiences, feelings, conclusions as well as things that were most challenging, lucky coincidences, unexpected turns, etc.)

How can one use this action as a manual? (Tips and steps shall be as clear as possible so it can be used as source of inspiration or directly as manual)

Approach:

Choose an approach of how you would like to describe the action - it might be handy to write it from the perspective of the activist, as well as a visitor, the media, or the setting. It also will impact your writing style, vocabulrary and chosen facts. It's nice to keep it relevant all throughout the material.

Structure:

Short intro: provide an insight into the settings either from the activist's point of view, or by describing the situation wherein an action became necessary

Action report: following the chosen writing approach, describe the action - how was the planning, how did it go, what was the impact with the public and in the media?

The ACTION report info box:

Find 1 to 20 words for the following labels:

CREW (name)

STASH (materials)

IT ALL STARTED, BECAUSE ...

WE WANTED TO SAY THAT ...

BIG BROTHER ... (mainstream media)

CAN BE REPEATED, IF ...

Always include in the document you send: your name and contact details (email) as well as the name of a contact person and e-mail address for the collective.

Action report checklist:

The concept is easy to understand

It's innovative

The process is described step by step,

Described in context

Surprise effect included

The actions can be adapted to other situations

It's non commercial

The ideas are open-source

Sustainability is taken into account

It's possible to say that action was successful.

It should be an action!

Submission guidelines for action reports

Always include in the document you send: your name and contact details (email) as well as the name of the collective,contact person, and email address.

Illustrations

We need a selection of 3-10 hq pictures (300 dpi). If, due to size it's impossible to send them, use online sharing tools such as Wetransfer or send a mail to webmaster|at|mastazine.net and ask for help with data transfer.

License

All texts and graphics on www.mastazine.net/handbook, if not otherwise specified within the article are published under CC-BY-SA 3.0 License. We very much appriciate news about what you do with our work!

Mašta handbook - practical guide of creative activism is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. This means that you are free to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work as well as to remix and adapt the work as long as you attribute the creator of the submission and Mašta. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or a similar license to this one.

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Supporters

The Mašta Handbook - practical guide to creative activism was made possible with help of financial support from the Council of Europe - European Youth Foundation.

The follow up project Mašta Handbook - peer to peer education has been funded with support from the Youth in Action Program - part of the European Commission. This project reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.